DVD Review: A Bone to Pick

A Bone to Pick is the first of the Aurora Teagarden Hallmark mysteries starring Candace Cameron-Bure. Aurora is a librarian and an active member in a local group for readers of true stories of unsolved crimes that likes to speculate on whodunit. A childless group member dies of old age and names Aurora as her sole heir. While going through her late friend’s effects at her friend’s home, Aurora discovers a hidden human skull. This leads her to try and prove her worth as an amateur detective and solve the case.

This TV movie checks some of the most important genre boxes. Aurora is a likable protagonist and the mystery is well thought-out. The mystery is two-fold as Aurora has to figure out who the victim was as well as who the murderer while refusing to report it to the police while she plays detective. The story is given an added sense of realism by having a best friend (Lexa Doig) who warns Aurora this is not a good idea. When the police do get involved, they don’t at all appreciate the amateur’s interference and threaten to arrest her. To make matters worse for Aurora, the police detective on the case is her ex-boyfriend’s new wife (Miranda Frigon) who is about nine months pregnant.

Several minutes are taken up with Aurora meeting and dating the Episcopal Priest Father Scott Aubrey (Stephen Huszar) The relationship goes nowhere, has nothing to do with the mystery, and he never appears in the series again. I also found the attempt to add peril to the denoument to be a bit silly and over-the-top.

But if I really had a “bone to pick” (ha) with the movies it is that there’s a missing sense of place. I’ve heard the books are set in Georgia. This makes sense. Aurora Teagarden the most Southern Belle name you’ll ever find. However, the movie is set in a generic small town and is filmed in Canada. This works fine most of the time, but a few details of the film would make a lot more sense if this story were set in Georgia, such as Aurora’s name and her mother’s attitude. Devoid of her cultural context, the proper patrician Southern lady becomes plain snooty.

Despite that, this was a fun movie. It’s a family-friendly mystery. with a likable actress playing the amateur detective. It’ll never win an Edgar but if you want to watch a cozy mystery with an amateur sleuth, this will do nicely.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

If you enjoyed this post, you can have new posts about Detective stories and the golden age of radio and television delivered automatically to your Kindle.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that items purchased from these links may result in a commission being paid to the author of this post at no extra cost to the purchase

Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio. We will feature six of Old Time Radio's great detectives from the beginning of the career to the very last episode in existence with a new episode posted Monday-Saturday.
In addition, twice a month, we'll post a public domain movie or TV mystery or detective show as a bonus.
Along the way, I'll provide you my commentary and offer you opportunities to interact. This is going to be fun and exciting. I hope you'll join me for the trip.
If you'd like to join the adventure with all the great shows that are featured as part of our line up, click here to add this podcast to your Itunes, click here to subscribe to this feed using any other feed reader.
If you'd like an even more in-depth experience, get our Iphones App from the Itunes store from or our Android App from the Amazon App. store and get bonus episodes featuring the stars of our shows in non-Detective roles.
You can follow me on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook

Subscribe to the Podcast

Search for:

Support the Great Detectives

Leave Your Prints on the Podcast!
If you love our shows, give a little back! Leave your prints on the podcast by making a: One time donation or Monthly donation!
We appreciate all of our wonderful supporters!More Info